State readies big down payment on common core
By Tom Chorneau
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
State fiscal officers are preparing to distribute $625 million to schools later this month to help bring the new national common standards into California classrooms.
The money comes on the heels of $2.1 billion in new state aid released last week targeting disadvantaged students – part of a bigger $26.7 billion, first-of-the-fiscal-year payment to K-12 districts.
The Common Core State Standards in math and English language arts were adopted in California three years ago, but it is only this year that the Legislature has been able to set aside some of the money needed to pay for transition costs, including new instructional materials, teacher training and updated technology.
The Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown allocated $1.25 billion for the transition process – money that will be shared by all school districts, county offices of education as well as charter schools.
Half of the money will go out in August; the second installment is scheduled to be released in October.
The authorizing legislation, AB 86, considers $1 billion of that money to be part of the 2012-13 fiscal year and the remaining $250 million earmarked as part of 2013-14.
Regardless of that accounting, the legislation also stipulates that local educational agencies can encumber the funds at any time during 2013-14 or 2014-15, according to new guidance from the California Department of Education.
While the state’s education leaders are anxious to get schools engaged in the new standards, there remains some